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The Reaper
The Reaper, born Shepard Sears and designated Spartan-A294, was a Spartan-III commando turned terrorist and the only survivor of Operation: PROMETHEUS. After surviving the Covenant counter-offensive that wiped out the rest of Alpha company, he spent a significant amount of time behind enemy lines and was believed by the UNSC to have died along with the rest of his company. His experiences during this time period heightened the hatred he already bore towards the Covenant, specifically the Sangheili who led its military forces. Following the end of the war and the establishment of an official peace between humans and Sangheili, Shepard became convinced that the Sangheili needed to be completely wiped out to ensure that humanity was never dominated by an alien power ever again. Biography Childhood The boy who would one day be known as the Reaper was born to David and Sheba Sears on the colony of Mamore. Although the planet was historically a breeding ground for insurrectionist activity, David was staunchly neutral in his politics. A Lutheran minister, he was inspired by ancient Quaker traditions regarding pacifism and refused to raise his children in the atmosphere of violence that plagued many of Mamore's families. The youngest of three children, Shepard was often ignored by a family that was kept busy by David's ministerial duties and the rigors of tending the farm that produced most of their income. He was, however, favored by his mother, who often took time out of her day to entertain him with stories she herself had learned from her own parents. Excited by her tales of heroes and adventure, Shepard often imagined himself to be a great "knight in shining armor" when the rest of his family was out working. Onyx and the Spartan Program Alpha Company Deployment Operation: Prometheus Survival Destruction of Faithful Obligation Imprisoned Post-War Although ONI and Sangheili intelligence divisions believe the Reaper was active long before he was first identified, his first public attacks began in late 2570. He accepted a string of Syndicate hits on an unruly arms dealing ring composed mostly of Sangheili, organizing a small team of mercenaries to assassinate all seven targets within the course of a single hour. Two weeks later, Sangheili intelligence agents identified the Reaper as the perpetrator in an incident that saw a poisoned water supply kill over a hundred Sangheili citizens on the colony of Cordial Harmony. A team of special operations warriors was dispatched to bring the "masked human" to justice; in the ensuing firefight, the Reaper killed the entire strike force and hung their disemboweled corpses in the streets of a Sangheili settlement. The Sanghelios Massacre of 2570 Personality From the time he was a small child, Shepard's greatest dream was to be a hero. Although the deaths of his parents and siblings pushed that desire to the back of his mind, it influenced his decision to sign on with the Spartan-IIIs and became more and more prevalent as his training with Alpha Company progressed. That dream was ultimately tarnished by Shepard's failure to save his friends during Operation: PROMETHEUS, but his survival convinced him that he was meant to have a greater role in the ongoing war against the Covenant. This budding idea of self-exceptionalism was a key factor in his radicalization and transformation into the Reaper. Noted for being considerably empathetic towards his fellow Spartans during training, Shepard was known for being compassionate and always ready to help anyone he saw in trouble or distress. This empathy was a key factor in his training as a medic. The trauma of PROMETHEUS did surprisingly little to shake him of this trait, and his time behind enemy lines following the battle even allowed him to identify with lesser Covenant client races such as the Unggoy and Kig-Yar. However, due to so much of his suffering occurring at the hands of Sangheili warriors, he was left unable to identify with the creatures he saw as "naturally designed killing machines." Though he balked at killing humans and even other species, Shepard never hesitated to kill Sangheili regardless of age or gender. His self-assigned task of eliminating them was at first carried out with the belief that it was a dirty job that only he was willing to do; under Diana's influence he learned to enjoy killing his prey and even began to exhibit a certain level of sadism in the way he handled individual killings. A latent scientific genius, Shepard was never taught even the basics of chemical-based warfare. As the Reaper, he re-purposed his skills as a medic to study the Sangheili anatomy and create some of the most lethal chemical agents of the 26th century. Category:Alpha Company